


Foxy Mama

by Burgie



Series: Katja Joins Team Good AU [71]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:57:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Mandy returns to the past for more adventures.





	Foxy Mama

It had been a long time since Mandy had set foot into the past. According to Louisa, though, she had to get a move on soon, because exciting things were about to happen. Apparently, around this time, the magician had gotten his new look, though Louisa didn't say any more. She wanted that to be a surprise, apparently. And so Mandy grabbed a bag of her things, mounted Stalker, and rode through the now-larger portal back in time. Both horse and rider shivered once they stepped out, the coastal air of New Hillcrest unfamiliar after so long being in the warmer atmosphere of Jorvik in her own time.

"I forgot how cold it is here," said Mandy, rubbing her arms and quickly dismounting to pull her stable doors open.

"You and me both," said Stalker, following close behind her. Her mother's large blue and black steed regained his blue colouring once he set hoof inside the stable, feeling safer there. There was only Maya to see him in here, along with Mandy and the other horses, and he knew that Maya wouldn't be too freaked out by a colour-changing, massive horse.

"Hi, everyone," Mandy cooed, waving to the horses that she had stabled here. "It feels like I haven't seen you for years."

"I'll say, I've gone grey!" said Lemonpepper with a swish of his tail. Mandy giggled. Before coming back to this time, she'd returned to the past, where she'd done a little tweaking to make Lemonpepper into the foal of one of her mother's 'normal' horses.

"Silly," said Mandy, petting his soft, velvety nose. "Louisa says that I'm going to need you for a little bit, but I dunno if I believe her. She can be a bit of a stickler for Jorvik Warmbloods being Soul Steeds." Though, she did feel a new connection with Lemonpepper now. Maybe it was from what she'd done with his heritage. Either way, it was warm and safe, like being held by her mother. While Mandy looked forward to getting to adventure on her own, she had to admit that she would miss her mothers. But there were adventures to be had.

"You can go on adventures with whoever you want," said Stalker. "Though, I still don't feel entirely comfortable being around the druids so much. There's also always the risk of me bumping into my past self, which can cause all kinds of issues."

"Alright," said Mandy with a sigh. "I never really felt that strongly towards you, Lemonpepper, but if it makes things easier, I'll ride you for everything involving the Soul Riders and druids."

"Thank you," said Stalker. "I'll still come with you on other adventures, though. Although... did Louisa say what's happening around this time?"

"Not in specifics," said Mandy. "Why?"

"Because there was a time when I was very sick," said Stalker. "Like your mother, I was greatly weakened from my stint in Pandoria. I almost died. But then your mama gave my rider a golden apple, and I made a full recovery. Your aunts and mother did complain a lot, though, about having to use the same horse."

"I'll bet they did," said Mandy, poking around in her tack room to find the right tack for Lemonpepper. At last, she found something suitable and tacked him up after giving him a good groom. "Alright, I'm going to be out for a while. I'll come back to change horses when someone else needs my help, though, okay, Stalker?"

"Go on and have fun, I don't mind the rest," said Stalker, going to stand in his box stall right by the front door. "Even if it has been a while since I've stretched my legs."

A little while later, after Mandy had been to Pandoria and back (and thought of several questions to ask her mothers when she got home), the stable doors opened again to reveal a rather bewildered Mandy and a pink-dusted Lemonpepper.

"Did your hair turn pink in Pandoria?" asked Stalker, seeing Mandy's new hairdo. Mandy touched her hair, which was tied up in a high ponytail with a large bow and undeniably pink.

"No, there's this pop star that I've literally never heard of before in town, and the hairdressers in Fort Pinta are doing cheap hair styles so I thought, why not?" said Mandy.

"Your mother is going to faint when she sees you," said Stalker. Mandy laughed.

"Should I take a picture?" asked Mandy. Stalker tossed his head with a snort, and Mandy grinned and turned her phone around to take a selfie. Her thumb hovered over the send button for a moment, though, before she decided to only save it instead of sending it. Stalker looked at her in confusion.

"You're not sending it now?" asked Stalker.

"No," said Mandy. "Later. Right now, I just want to go and do something normal. There was an old lady standing outside Firgrove who looked like she could use my help, I might go check in on her. Hopefully she doesn't have some outlandish request. And hopefully she's not as weird as Evergray."

"Oh," said Stalker. "Him." He said the word with such derision that Mandy felt almost afraid.

"Why, what did he do?" asked Mandy.

"What didn't he do?" asked Stalker. "He tried to get the secret of beating Pandorian sickness out of your mother, asked a million and one questions about the runes, wanted to know the secrets of the Generals, he's just such a pest."

"Mum never told me about that," said Mandy, frowning down at her pink-dusted hands.

"I suspect that she just wanted to forget about it," said Stalker. "So much so that she did forget about it, and about him, altogether."

"I'll be on my guard around him," said Mandy.

"Good idea," said Stalker. "But for now, an old lady in Firgrove needs our help."

Running from wolves was definitely not the adventure that Mandy had been envisioning, but it sure beat Pandoria and Evergray any day. It also beat chasing the Sunfield hens by about a mile. And Rania was nice, though Mandy had been a little surprised at first to discover that she was blind. But then, she was too busy exploring Mistfall to do much else.

The next day, after kicking GED out of Mistfall, Mandy was hailed by a young woman who seemed to have more foxes than common sense.

"Hi! You there! Could you possibly help me with something, please?" the young woman called. Mandy dismounted Stalker and walked over to her, curious. "Oh, thank goodness!" The woman looked truly relieved. "I'm Kit, by the way, and this is Kit's Cuddle Cottage. Welcome!"

"Hi," said Mandy, looking at a fox that was cautiously making its way towards Stalker. The fox was white, with black-tipped ears, though there was something familiar about it. Kit quickly distracted Mandy's attention away from the creature, however, telling her to take a fox for a special snuggle delivery.

"This seems like something mum could've used a while ago," said Mandy as she rode away carrying the pet carrier which contained the fox.

"Believe me, she thought the same when she first discovered it," said Stalker.

After delivering the fox to the now-happy girl, Mandy returned to Kit's Cuddle Cottage.

"Mission successful," said Mandy. "That's one happy girl now. You're doing such a great thing here, Kit."

"Thank you so much!" said Kit, grinning. "Mistfoxes always make me happy when I'm feeling down, so I thought that maybe it could work for others too."

"That's so sweet of you to do that," said Mandy, smiling.

"And it looks like one of them has taken a liking to you," said Kit, looking at Stalker's saddlebag. Mandy looked too, and was surprised to find a white mistfox sitting in the saddlebag as though it belonged there. Mandy stared at it. That fox looked too intelligent.

"I guess it has," said Mandy, digging in her pocket for her star coins. She'd amassed quite a lot during her time away, enough to buy a new horse. But she knew that if she did buy a new horse, she'd need to train it or Louisa would be very disappointed in her. So she'd spent most of it hiring Maya to care for her horses for a month, and then she'd spent more buying some new outfits and tack sets. She cringed a little at the outlandish price of the mistfox, she could've bought a horse for that money, and gave Kit the money. The transaction completed, she rode off, heading deeper into the forest of Mistfall.

She was halfway down the road before the fox spoke to her.

"What in the name of Aideen have you done to your hair?" At the familiar voice, Mandy groaned. She should've recognised it. But she was also happy to have her mother here, albeit in fox form.

"It's only temporary, mum," said Mandy, looking back at the mistfox. Her mother huffed, flattening her ears.

"I hope so," said her mother. "I don't even know how you got the dye to hold, to be honest. But why pink? You could've chosen any colour, and you know that pink has negative connotations in this world."

"Yes, mum, I know," said Mandy, feeling like a little kid again. She took some solace in the fact that a lot of teenagers were scolded by their parents for dying their hair. At last, her mother was acting like a normal parent.

"Then why?" asked her mother, swishing her tail.

"Because it's my favourite colour," said Mandy, turning Stalker to head up onto a forested plateau where nobody would find it strange that she was talking to a fox.

"Right, yes, I remember that now," said her mother, looking down at the ground. "Still, though, it's creepy, seeing you with pink hair. You look like Anne."

"Well, it's weird seeing you as a fox too," said Mandy. "Why a fox, mum? And... why are you here? You don't need to check up on me, or are you lonely?"

"Maybe I got bored of sitting around the bunker all day fretting," said her mother. "I figured the fox would be inconspicuous, and small enough to carry around in your saddlebag."

"You could also run alongside Stalker if you wanted," said Mandy. "I'm surprised you didn't come as a cat."

"Pass," said her mother. "And if I became a cat, your mother would laugh at me. As would everyone else."

"You're probably right," said Mandy. She finally stopped Stalker in a nice little spot shaded by trees, dismounting. "Need me to help you out of that saddlebag?" Her mother peered over the edge of the saddlebag uncertainly, then looked at her daughter. Mandy laughed, picking the fox up and setting her on the ground.

"Thank you," said her mother. "Now, as to why I came here, well... your mother reminded me that this is when some really big stuff happens."

"Bigger than Darko trying to imprison me in Pandoria forever?" asked Mandy. Katja growled.

"Would that I could punish him for that," said Katja. "But unfortunately, the Darko in our time is not the same Darko from this time. Nor is he your biggest threat."

"That sounds scary," said Mandy.

"I know," said Katja. "Have you met Ydris yet?"

"He's so hot now," said Mandy. Katja huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I'll be sure to inform your boyfriend of that," said Katja. "Beware the magician, my daughter. He's more dangerous than anyone expected. Except Louisa, because she's automatically suspicious of anyone attractive."

"I'll be careful, mum," said Mandy. "By the way, Concorde didn't make it? Seriously? But I've seen him, unless that's one of the things that's different in this timeline."

"In my defense, I didn't know where he was at the time," said Katja. "I only knew what I was told, which wasn't much. For all we knew, he was dead, he just disappeared when the goons were trying to transfer him onto a horse trailer. They mentioned something about a little guy in a mask, though."

"Xin," said Mandy. "The jester, he wears this weird mask." Katja inclined her head in a nod.

"Yes, him," said Katja. "But they didn't think anything of it, they just thought he was for some entertainment or something. Anyway, it's what I knew, so it wasn't technically a lie."

"Oh, so when I use half-truths to get my way out of trouble, it's fine, but when you do it," said Mandy. Katja laughed, which sounded strange coming from a fox.

"Oh, believe me, your mother had several words to say to me on that matter," said Katja. "I was in the doghouse then. And if you dare make a pun, I'll bite you."

"I'll resist somehow," said Mandy. "So how long are you staying?"

"Until the danger has passed," said Katja. "Maybe forever."

"Are you in the doghouse again?" asked Mandy.

"No," said Katja. "It has nothing to do with your mother. I'm just so worried about you."

"Okay," said Mandy, leaning down to hug her mother. Katja nuzzled her face.

"Oh, and don't worry, I'll repay you for the fee that Kit made you pay for me," said Katja. Mandy grinned.

"Thanks, mum," said Mandy. She wasn't sure how she felt about her mother shadowing her on her adventures, but hopefully it would be okay. And maybe it would even be fun. "By the way, how many 'foxy mama's did you get before you left?"

"I don't want to talk about it," said Katja. Mandy laughed.


End file.
